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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Retiring Rev. McClure looks back

The Rev. David McClure, senior minister at Unity Spiritual Center in Spokane, has served many congregations around the world. (Dan Pelle)

As the Rev. David McClure approaches retirement in March, he is already working on his next project – a book on the challenge of facing change.

The senior minister at Spokane’s Unity Spiritual Center, McClure, 77, has spent his career preaching a message to embrace the higher power within every person.

He said life flows better when we release our resistance to change.

The working title for the book is “Wait for Change,” or the ability to let life reveal itself to you.

The message could never be more important for McClure, who is battling skin cancer.

He underwent surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, but the melanoma continued to spread. Last summer, his doctors said he might have six months to live.

In September, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted accelerated approval for a new drug for treating melanoma.

McClure qualified for the drug based on the type of gene mutation found in his cancer. He started taking Keytruda three months ago.

His latest scan showed that the number and size of his tumors were vastly reduced.

The lesson, he said, is “never give up. The higher power has another plan.”

It is a lesson he has carried with him since he studied for the ministry and lived in a cottage behind the home of James Dillet Freeman, the poet laureate of the Unity faith.

McClure said Freeman taught him vast differences between giving up, giving in and giving way.

A Seattle Seahawks fan, he said the team’s improbable comeback win in overtime against Green Bay is a case in point.

At a time when fans were leaving the stadium and people were turning off their televisions, the Seahawks never gave up.

He extends the Seahawks metaphor to his support network through the spiritual center.

McClure considers all of the people who have prayed for him and encouraged him as his own “12th man,” the name the Seahawks apply to their fan support.

In addition to his book project, McClure has been active on his Facebook page, sharing thoughts with his friends.

Among those thoughts: “We are all Unity students. We are all in the learning process. There is no graduation.”

Born in Ontario in 1937, McClure was introduced to Unity tenets by his parents when he was 6 years old.

He attended Ryerson University in Toronto in the late 1950s and entered Ministerial School at Unity Village, Missouri, in 1960.

His first ministry was in Vancouver, British Columbia. He was ordained in 1963.

Later that year, he took a ministry job in Australia. Sailing Down Under on a freighter took more than seven months. There, he established congregations in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, as well as Christ Church and Auckland, New Zealand.

He arrived in Spokane for his first ministry in 1975, staying until 1983.

During that time, he married his second wife, the Rev. Donna McClure. She is a chaplain for Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center and Providence Holy Family Hospital, among other duties.

That period saw the start of a popular universal Easter Sunday service for the community at what is now the INB Performing Arts Center through what was then called the Unity Church of Truth in Spokane.

The couple left Spokane for ministries in Hawaii, Pennsylvania and Dallas, and also ran a bed-and-breakfast in Santa Fe during a sabbatical.

They returned to Spokane in 2009, planning to retire, but David McClure was invited to resume his position as senior minister during a period of transition at the church.

Later this year, the ministry will be turned over to the Revs. Jane and Gary Simmons.

Spokane’s Unity congregation was established in 1913 by Albert Grier.

During the spiritual center’s centennial celebration in 2013, the Unity Church of Truth was renamed to the Unity Spiritual Center.

The Unity faith dates to the 1889 periodical, “Modern Thought,” by Charles Fillmore.

The main tenet is that the power of God is within everyone. For Christians, Jesus is seen as a guide and way-shower.

Said McClure, “We are chips off the divine block.”